Confronting Antigay Prejudice

Confrontation of prejudice may be socially costly to confronters, leading to them being disliked for their actions. Moreover, it appears that confronting antigay prejudice specifically bears an additional cost for males: people may question their sexual orientation following their confrontation. Relatedly, heterosexual males report being concerned with having their sexual orientation misclassified were they to confront antigay prejudice. This may act as a mental barrier to confrontation, leading them to remain silent in the face of blatant prejudice. Given that antigay prejudice remains rampant and that heterosexual people seem to be the most effective confronters of antigay prejudice, it is important to find ways to reduce their legitimate fears and help them confront. This program of research included five studies to further investigate confrontation of antigay prejudice in order to solidify and expand previous knowledge about its costs, as well as test different interventions aimed at removing barriers to confrontation and increasing confrontation by heterosexual people. Studies 1-2 sought to replicate previous findings in new social contexts and found that, across different situations, sexual orientation perception biases constitute a recurring cost for male confronters of antigay prejudice. Study 3 examined the efficacy of different confrontation tactics in response to varied bigoted comments and found that confronting clear bigotry using a suggestive tone and avoiding prejudice labels such as â homophobicâ led to better outcomes for confronters than confronting ambiguous bigotry with a personal attack using labels. Study 3 also compared confrontation of anti-lesbian and antigay bigotry and found that people are generally more positive toward antigay prejudice confronters. Studies 4-5 tested different interventions aimed at reducing barriers to help heterosexual individuals confront antigay prejudice. Study 4 showed that simply allowing males to disclose and affirm their orientation may not be enough to help them confront more, whereas Study 5 showed that giving information about confrontation may reduce beliefs that confronting is ineffective. Together, these studies not only shed light on alliesâ antigay prejudice confrontation outcomes, but also offer valuable information as to how it may be possible to reduce costs to confronters in hopes of encouraging them to confront more often.Ph.D